There's a Petition to Stop Phil Collins From Coming Out of Retirement

[Orrex]

32. Oh, please--you're flailing.

When your "can you do better?" plea was revealed for the hollow tactic that it is, you switched gears with empty accusations of music snobbery. You seek to turn what is frankly a light-hearted discussion of differing musical tastes into a screed on the nature of aesthetics. Go on with your bad self.

Phil Collins should be stricken from the canon simply for his involvement in the unbearably shrill I Can't Dance. Illegal Alien is a painful embarrassment every time it airs. Invisible Touch is a horror of repetition. Sussudio is vile showcase of his grating, raspy "vocal" style. You Can't Hurry Love is as foul a cover as has ever been recorded (second perhaps to David Bowie's take on Alabama Song). Jesus He Knows Me is execrable, heavy-handed and obvious.

Easy Lover isn't especially terrible, but it's buoyed by Philip Bailey's heavy lifting. The Tarzan soundtrack is an abomination. If I were forced to endure one musical venture in which Collins has involved himself, I suppose I'd go with either In The Air Tonight or Separate Lives. I'd rather hit myself with a mallet, of course, but if I had to pick a least unbearable song, it would be one of those two.

I could go on and on, but let me instead sum up by saying that I am regrettably familiar with decades of Collins' work, and my dislike of him is not some off-hand rejection borne of music snobbery.